Sunday, October 25, 2015

The colossal mess and failure of Mérida

Reforma is reporting
the United States has again blocked a portion of funds due to be given to
Mexico through the Merida Initiative.The initiative was established to support Mexico in funds and equipment,
in its fight against drugs.

The U.S. with withhold
15% (5M)of the total annual budget allocated, until the State Department issues a
certification that Mexico has met the human rights standards.

The U.S. decided on this
action in part based on the Iguala case of the killing and kidnapping of 49
persons on September 26-27, 2014. 43 of
the 49, mostly normalistas, are missing and presumed dead, ( the majority
of people in Mexico are discounting the official explanation by the Enrique
Peña Nieto administration).

Other cases are of extrajudicial
killings such as the 22 in Tlatlaya. And 16 in Apatzingán, Michoacán where
police were heard saying “mow them down like dogs” when killing or injuring the
unarmed citizens including children. Some photos reveal a few of the citizens, with the only weapon they had in their vehicles, sticks. Citizens reported federal police of planting
the few weapons shown in photos.

The US government
significantly strengthened its partnership with Mexico in combating organized
crime in 2007 when it announced the Merida Initiative, a multi-year US security
assistance package for Mexico. Aside
from funds, the U.S. has provided equipment and training.

Since the 2008 onset,
the United States congress highlighted the importance of tying in assurances
that Mexico respect human rights from the outset, US Congress recognized the
importance of ensuring that the Mexican government respect human rights in its
public security efforts, thereby mandated that 15% of funding be withheld of
Merida funds until the State Department issued a report to the US Congress
which showed that Mexico had demonstrated it was meeting four human rights
requirements.

Apatzingán, Michoacán, directly above and above left

In the years since the
initiative began, Mexico has been chastised by the U.S. for human rights
violations. Critics have said it has not
been effective or that punitively at 15% funding freeze is not harsh enough. (What it calculates to this
year is meager 5 million USD)

The U.S. threatened to withhold
money unless cases of violations by military elements, and Federal Police, are prosecuted
in public court, instead of military court.

In 2010 U.S. congress
set forth these following requirements to be met by Mexico. Astonishingly, in
the same year it was determined by the State Department in a report to
congress, that that Mexico was meeting the Merida Initiative's human rights
requirements, and it stated its intention to obligate roughly $36 million in
security assistance that had been withheld from the 2009 supplemental and the
2010 omnibus budgets.

However, research
conducted by organizations, including Mexico's National Human Rights

Futbol player, age 15 killed in Iguala attack

Commission, and the State Department's own reports, demonstrates conclusively
that Mexico has failed to meet the four human rights requirements set out by
law.

In consideration of
these facts congress should not have been releasing funds. In doing so and liberating previous fund withholding's,
the Obama administration sent a message to Mexico, that the United States will
not react punitively to grave human rights violations. In effect, establishing the United States, tolerates
human rights violations that include torture, rape, murder and disappearance.

Four
requirements:

1)
Requirement: Ensuring that civilian prosecutors and judicial authorities are
investigating and prosecuting members of the federal police and military forces
who have been credibly alleged to have violated human rights.

In a report to congress
it states that Mexico's military justice system continues to
"systematically claim" jurisdiction over the investigation of these
cases. The reports also states; "information on military prosecutions is
difficult to obtain," the "limited information on military
prosecutions and complaints filed suggest that actual prosecutions are
rare."

According to the
Mexican military's own reports, military courts have only sentenced one soldier
for a human rights violation committed since 2007.

Up to 2015, not a
single soldier has been prosecuted in civilian courts since the Merida
Initiative came into effect in July 2008. In this sense, the State Department's
assertion in its September 2010 report that civilian prosecutors are investigating
and prosecuting members of the military accused of human rights violations is
inaccurate. To date, no bill has been
introduced in the Mexican Congress to amend this practice.

Requirement: Ensuring that civilian prosecutors and judicial authorities are
investigating and prosecuting members of the federal police and military forces
who have been credibly alleged to have violated human rights.

Requirement: Enforcing the prohibition on the use of testimony obtained through
torture.

Mexico claims to have addressed
this practice of abuse, however the systematic practice of torture to obtain
confessions have continued unabated.
This is a critical issue most effecting Mexico’s system of justice, as
most often confessions are the sole or primary evidence in criminal conviction.

Amid the tactics
documented in force confession abuses, are the use of electric shocks,
beatings, water boarding and suffocation with plastic bags. Meanwhile, the
practice of “arraigo” in which a suspect
may be detained for up to 80 days before being charged, in itself creates an
environment that, facilitates torture.

Requirement: Improve the transparency and accountability of federal police
forces and work with state and municipal authorities to improve the
transparency and accountability of state and municipal police forces.

Mexico has agreed to
changes that would create effective accountability and transparency, it does
not provide clear guidelines for human rights complaints nor does it provide mechanisms
that ensures transparency in the investigation, court hearings and disciplinary
actions

Requirement: Conduct regular consultations with Mexican human rights
organizations and civil society on recommendations for the implementation of
the Merida Initiative.

Mexico has for all
intents and purpose have kept meetings private to only a few select groups of
representatives by making it impossible to improbable all groups can
attend. By holding the meetings in D.F.
with only a few days’ notice, rarely opened to the public, and exclusion of all
groups having the right to set the agenda for the meetings, set only by the
government. As a result few groups are
left participating in the consultations.

Iguala, Guerrero scene of first of two attacks in September, 2014 a massacre of 49 people

Obama
administration adjustments and goals

The Barrack Obama
administration has made wide changes in the implementation of the treaty, by
shifting funds pegged for security, to social programs targeted at facilitating
Mexico's economic and justice system.

The administration implemented
four goals:

1) The disruption of organized criminal groups2) Establishing the rule of law and respect
for human rights reforms3) 21st century border structure with the
utilization of equipment, technology, and training”4) The creation of strong,
stable communities (ex. Micro loans, workshops, education)

In the face of these changes, the deterioration
of the situation in Mexico has proved the initiative of being a colossal
failure, and yet it has continued. All the good intentions will fall flat without
stringent safeguards, if the beneficiary is immersed in a bed of criminal collusion and corruption.

The 2014 Iguala
nightmare set the stage for a global spotlight to shine of the chaotic state of
culpability, organized crime collusion, corruption, and human rights abuses,
threaded through all layers of municipal, state and federal governments.

Dr. John Ackerman, an
author as well as a professor at the Institute of Legal Research of the
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and vice president of the International
Association of Administrative Law puts it this way in speaking about the Merida
Initiative;

“Through
two United States presidents, and 3 billion dollars later, Mexico is more unsafe, chaotic and authoritarian than ever”.

American Julio Mondragon, a student teacher living in Mexico,
face was flayed in the Iguala attack against "normalitas" and others

In a September 2015 report from Small Wars Journal (authored by Michael Hoopes) this was the conclusion:

Conclusions"Despite the official
policy goals expressed by the U.S. and Mexican governments, U.S. support of Mexican
security forces through training and cash transfers, has remained at high
levels.Moreover, while U.S.
net assistance to Mexican security forces has declined from its historically
high levels of the George W. Bush administration, data show that said decline
has not coincided with an increase in U.S. funds devoted to non-security
initiatives that seek to remedy Mexico's crime problem, despite public promises
by the Obama administration.

While this report does
not explore arguments in favor of the United States supporting Mexican security
institutions through training and equipment transfers/sale, Mexico's human
rights catastrophes of 2014 support the critics who say that U.S. funds
continue to support a state security apparatus rife with corruption. Thus, an
analysis of both the nature of the U.S. foreign aid budget to Mexico and the
events of 2014 clearly show that the institution-building efforts enshrined in
the Mérida Initiative elude achievement.

The U.S. government,
specifically the agencies who administer Mérida Initiative and Department of Defense
funds to Mexico, by all accounts lacks a program that methodically and
specifically assesses the outcomes of their financing and training experts. The
2010 recommendation of the U.S. Government

Accountability Office
that the Secretary of State “incorporate into the strategy for the Mérida Initiative
outcome performance measures that indicate progress toward strategic goals”
remains largely unfulfilled, and the more complete implementation of the
recommendation would be the crucial step in allowing the U.S. government to
properly assess the impacts of the military assistance that those inside and
outside the U.S. government continue to deem negative."

Funds, equipment and training has been misappropriated and used to militarized
security and finance human rights abuses of Mexican citizens.

In conclusion the once
promising treaty should have been terminated long ago, either permanently,
because of Mexico’s non-compliance, or temporarily, to enact adjustments.

Mexico has been treated
as a spoiled child knowing the punishment will be short lived and without meaningful
consequence, especially during the Obama administration.

Funds should have never
been diverted from security to social programs.

But the greatest enemy
to the success of the treaty was lack of safeguards and oversight. To throw funding, equipment and training at a
nation deep-rooted in corruption, on every layer of government, municipal,
state, federal, without stringent oversight, is tantamount to throwing funding
at a windstorm, where at least, it would
have better odds at landing where it could do some good.

In writing this post a portion of info or material was used from; Gov Track, SMJ, Reforma and Human Rights Watch, BB archive

Americans did not do it, rogue american government agents are to be blamed and ashamed, maybe Obama needs to place blame where it belongs, for the money, and for the murders and for the exhonerations, general Cienpedos is too old, he will not go to court alive, but his estate can be sued, work on it...

Someone said they are ashamed to be American? Why should America allow this money in the hands of the largest cartel there? Their government. I said time and time again sanctions should be brought against this country for its treatment of the citizens/ Great job America. Stop helping those who are doing nothing more than hurting others!

giving money to Mexico is a way of kinda hiding the fact that USA has a drug problem . you know like the politicians can say " well we are doing what we can " but really the solution is to close that freaking border . Cold turkey for Americanos ( notice im not saying whites )

15% of funds witheld is like a mosquito bite en una nalga.--All the funds should have gone to human rights organizations and at least some to indemnify the parents of the disappeared, also the AutoDefensas not compromised with the state at any level and the freedom of the imprisoned including Dr Mireles, Nestora Salgado and Semei Verdia, and so many others...--But it was more important to release the Tlatlaya murderers because El General Cienpedos takes care of "HIS SOLDIERS"...--According to plata it (youtube) el general Cienpedos es puro cabron, puro culero incompetente, maricon, cobarde, y todo un hijo de su puta madre...--the mexican governingnarco-mierdocracia paints big smiles of happiness on the mexicans, american julio Mondragon (exchange student? Nah) Ayotzinapa student is witness...Thanks for taking care lucio}:●》

All funds should be stopped immediately and given to Latin countries who deserve. Mexico gets a big F in every category possibe. Blame Obama and the alphabet boys all you want but it's your country so own your problems.

It is a way for the well connected US politicians to steal from the US taxpayer, "create a conflict and collect big bucks for trying to solve it" with the corporations they "create and own all by theirselves..."

@8:22 Mexico's #1 and the biggest problem is the US "rogue government" agents and their influence on their hijacked government that give money, weapons, training, sovereign impunity, and shelter to the mexican governing narco-mierdocracia who is Mexico's second #1 problem...

Was that one prosecution in 2007 mentioned as the only one, was that the lieutenant who was prosecuted for not being corrupt, for trying to do his job right, for being a whistleblower.I think I remember some such case written about here

Mexico is moving backwards on many fronts, not just human rights. Corruption is completely out of control with PRI back in power. Economic inequality is growing exponentially. Impunity is at the highest levels ever. Press freedom is in jeopardy.

@11:38..I have to agree, totally. The PRI, is just...the worst. You know their elections are all rigged. I can't imagine, why the Mexican citizens, would ever want the PRI back in that seat again.That's about like us, voting another Bush back in as our President, why would we ever do such a thing! However, Mexico's citizens are not in a place, to demand change, force people out of office..They will die, they do die..or they end up in a political prison somewhere(Dr.Jose Mireles)! Democracy, it doesn't exist for the Mexican citizen!!

@9:54...AND THE US PAYS FOR ALL OF IT, STARTING WITH THE RIGGED ELECTIONS AND THE BOUGHT VOTES...all the human rights organizations the US, Latin america.mexico asia, 5he middle east pacific islands asia have signed agreements, none of them are respected in their quest for global privatization rights for the rich and powerful and global socialization of poverty, ignorance, malnutrition, lack of health care and human rights abuses...--"they" are trying to ram it down our throats that that is how it is and you don't have anything to say or do about it, because they got guns and gorilla armies, and the US leads the charge...

The EUA must understand that the mil de millones dolares in drugs makes 15% of Merida a laugh. 100% of Merida multa would get notice. But maybe a little is better than nada. Fucking politicos play stupid unless friend or family is involved. They make jokes of the tontos gringos. I remember the promiseThe day after the armas and dinero coming south stop the drogas going north will stop.

La pura verdad, 11:58, asi es. Everybody's getting played. The insufferable EPN & narco gob managed to alienate every UN & NGO investigating human rights progress in Mexico, and there has actually been none as these human rights commissions have stated in public. The Merida Initiative es una mierda, a cruel joke, una burla total. The States cites congress as holding the purse strings, but EPN always gets his money from his uncle Sam, one way or another.

Great article. This falls @ the opposite end of the spectrum from your article Sunday, May 31, 2015"Mexican spending spree, purchasing military equipment from the U.S." One hand doesn't know what the other is doing. I am an American. I am not a syndicated news watching American. These are the types of stories that need to be shown & seen on U.S. T.V. It sickens me how 2 faced our gov't can be, at the same time how oppressive & brutal the PGR is. The majority of Americans have no idea what is really going on next door. They are more afraid of ISIS and the beheadings they use as scare tactics. They are not aware that these happen on an almost daily basis in Mexico. Americans are also unaware of the human rights violations & collusion by our gov't that allow such things to continue. It is a sad situation for Mexico, for as long as the U.S. govt. is making money off the drug trade, there is no reason to step in and stop this madness. Shame on our gov't and shame on the Mexican gov't too.

This is pure evil pinochetismo, but "low intensity", nobody to blame but the US foreign policy agencies and their terrorist practices that have dragged the US down to the pig pen mud where they belong with the pig poop...

9:00 "you" do not have a penny in your name, the managers of the Mierda Accords who administration is terrible the money, also steal it in cahoots with the mexican side, but the US borrows the money they "spend" from chinese and Jewish bankers who steal it out the back door, the US and mexico see no benefit...

The money is no "given" to them. They in turn are required to use that money to purchase US weapons and equipment and training. And of course pocket some of it themselves. In essence we the tax payers are funding the Mexican government's "war" on its citizens. Its all on our tab.

Der Hirsch, prepare your homeless shelter, the dragon "but she was an angel" sorry excuse for a wife you married just because she used her witchcraft on You, must be about to kick ya' ass out of "her house" you bought for HER ass to stuff her maff in...Show her tits, I mean >this< report, ask her to Comment for BB in her defense...

Can someone help me figoue out how to make my government understand that i want them to Not give MEXICO any Money. Or fight to give them LESS so that Mexico can see that we care about the poor Mexican families that get shot. What can i do, where can i go??? Someone help me fight.

U.S. cuts $5 million in drug war aid to Mexico over human rights concerns by Rafa Fernandez De Castro | October 26, 2015".... However, symbolically it is very harmful to Mexico’s image in the world.. The U.S. government will still give Mexico $190 million in anti-drug aid, according to the New York Times. ..When the Merida Initiative was signed, Congress allocated approximately $2.5 billion for programs in Mexico. “... more than $1.3 billion worth has been provided. Mexico, for its part, has invested some $79 billion of its own resources on security and public safety, including $11 billion in 2015,” according to the CRS report.Here's the link:http://fusion.net/story/220960/u-s-cuts-5-million-in-drug-war-aid-to-mexico-over-human-rights-concerns/

Mexico has never invested 79 billion DOLLARS on defense, maybe pesos, but they were Stolen by presidents and secretarios of something or other, even major rata carlos salinas de gortari only stole like about 1 billion pesos from defense budget, and that sent the military scrambling for opportunities it to make their own money, from what else, DRUG TRAFFICKING, shaking down the mexicans like the federal poolice corporations, kidnappings for ransom also increased after the salinato, because anti-kidnapping experts like genaro garcia luna and his expert kidnapping for ransom team headed by his cousins luis cardenas palomino and alfredo castillo were doing the crimes themselves, they are tight with their partner and godfather, el mismitito demonio came from the lost tribe, lebanese pariah Carlos Slim Helu, mexico's newest "oilman"...--Kidnapping for Ranson helped Slim become the richest man In the world, with drug trafficking doing its part, having your brother "El Comandante Olvidado" Julian Slim Helu in charge of the International airport of mexico city helps there...

Some one could say the army is like the armed wing for some of the corrupt mx-gob officials in charge of "solving the mexicans ploblam" locally, regionally and nationally. They themselves be protecting the big criminals in power on the mx-gob offices and in the sierras...No wonder they themselves are inplicated many times with many, many mess ups...criminals against criminals? collusions? While common citizens get screwed in the process...

No, thank you Lucio! So many have questioned, the support given, by the United States, that helped aid civilian deaths in Mexico."The buck stops here"..or some of the bucks anyway, but lots more needs to be done. I am thankful, for even the smallest of 'gifts' given.That box of bullets, that we will no longer supply Mexico with, it might just save an innocent life, or two..or three. Our supplies, were meant to help defend human rights, civilians..innocents. This was not meant, to ever aid in supporting human rights violations! This...is a very good thing, for us all!

The purpose of "giving" mexican governing narco-mierdocracia funds for its gorilla armies was/is to murder the disidents who do not agree that mexico should be all privatized, it is the only thing progressing in mexico...--there is more drug trafficking than ever thank you...

USA Politicians are straight up idiots! Trump is right. Why the hell is the US giving tax payer money to Mexican Politicians. Mexico is the most corrupt country, they dont give a damm about human rights. All that tax payer money goes straight into mexican politicians pockets.

Excellent article.The late Chuck Bowden wrote about this so long ago, no one listened. NAFTA, the maquiladoras,the drug appetite of the U.S., the money flowing both ways, in Murder City and Dreamland, the corruption on both sides of the river. The way the press in Mexico is strangled and the press in America turns a blind eye, for fear of offending Emperor BHO.The day the money and arms stop coming south is the day the drugs stop coming north, but then what? Can the Mexican people go back to the land? How will they survive without the dream of moving to America and earning a living? Only by Mexico changing its system. Such a rich country with such poor people. So far from God, so close to los Estados Unidos.

Education is the key. This requires long term financial investments in a universal education system. It's worth noting that US foreign aid packages quit including funding for education in the mid 1980's. Money for schools and university programs virtually dried up. Educate two generations of Mexicans, they'll build a country; educate three generations of Mexicans, they'll run their country better and more intelligently than anyone else ever could.

Educating, 3 generations, will take forever, by then, the educated will have sold out again...--we need a revolution of the people, by the people, for the people, and no education at all to agarrar a tablazos en las nalgas and unos pinchis gorillas "del gobierno". ..

15%?? Take 100% until the motherfuckers get their shit together! Very interesting stuff though... This is the kind of shit i like to read on BB, not the same shit rehashed over and over. Good job putting it together, whoever you are...

Overthrow the corrupt Mexican government and let Chapo run the show. What how quick the country gets on it's feet again. Sorry but the war on drugs has been a complete waste of time, money and lives. When will Mexico get smart?

It has not been a waste of time or money for those running the "expensive war" it has made them billions of dollars, that is why they create drug trafficking, make money from it, and make money from "fixing the problem" that the new American Way...

The US created and financed the expansion of the War for Drugs. Just look how many more US citizens are addicted and pacified with drugs, and the ones who don't use drugs are terrified by the violence and are happy to accept the loss of rights and privacy. The Mexican government recieves billions of dollars, so it's a win/win for both governments....And a lose/lose for the common citizen of both Mexico and the US.

Get Smart? He could not even keep his lousy show alive Fer hell's high heels shakes!!!--Now, the Pentagon lost 2 trillion dollars or so, and when they was about to get investigated, a strange passenger plane WITHOUT WINGS, that looked like a Russian rocket but wasn't, struck the el pentagon on 9/11, right in the ass where those records were being kept (!!!), how is tan about efficient accounting...--THE MEXICANS only steal all the money and want to fix the governing problems using their US given gorilla armies to mug and rob the narcos and the people...

This HR report has everything you have long reported as being the true story. Unarmed citizens, planted weapons, medical professionals warned against intervention...etc....etc....etc....etc..

from report:

A 19-year-old man wounded in the Apatzingán incident told Human Rights Watch that federal police opened fire on unarmed civilians, shot two of them in the head while they lay on the ground taking cover, and planted guns next to their corpses. Human Rights Watch obtained a written statement from another witness and a recorded interview that a third witness gave to a journalist that corroborated this account. A physician who treated injured people in the incident told the media in a recorded interview that police impeded the injured from receiving medical care, resulting in the death of at least one more person.

In the days after the shootings at Apatzingán – when the official investigation had barely started – the presidentially appointed security commissioner for Michoacán, Alfredo Castillo, claimed that most of the eight civilians who died were killed in “crossfire” by the civilians’ own weapons. He also showed a video that he claimed proved that civilians had attacked police.

The Interior Ministry later disseminated the video to Mexican media to support the claim that police fired in self-defense at armed attackers. Eight months later, when Interior Ministry officials were still using the video to support their “self-defense” claim, they met with Human Rights Watch and provided a copy of the video. The video in fact does not show the civilians attacking the police, and the civilians it shows appear unarmed.

Well, sorry mijitos...The Mexican Government does not accept the intromissions of foreign countries or their delegates in national matters and reserves to themselves the right and the duty to control dissent and discontent as it sees fit by any means necessary, or unnecessary, and to disappear the evidence and avoid the consequences, we only sign HR agreements to make you feel good, but that is not our problem...Atentamente: Mexico Government